Sorry Chopper, my snark was prompted by this:
**Nava **
It’s one of those debates where agreeing to disagree is usually best, because there really is no single right answer. I do actually know people who prefer to let the cat out to get it tired, because they like a sleeping cat but don’t much care about actually interacting and playing with one. They are the sort to whom pets in general are a life accessory, not a life necessity. A mindset that I must say totally flummoxes me.
Ignoring everything else, this is an issue of improper diet. Especially if they’re as active as you say they are, there’s no reason for them to be getting fat except for a poor diet unless they have medical issues that have nothing to do with them being indoor or outdoor cats.
I’ve had both indoor and outdoor critters over the years. Generally speaking, the outdoor cats cost me significantly higher vet bills for injuries and illnesses. My current cat is a strictly indoor kitty. He’s a Ragdoll, and they’re so non confrontational as a breed, that he really wouldn’t survive long outside. He’d never defend himself and views everyone and everything as a friend. Not great survival skills.
My prior cat had been abused when I got her and consequently started out terrified of the world in general. Wind, rain, leaves, birds…you name it, they scared her senseless. In her later years she decided that she wanted to venture out when I wasn’t looking and she had developed such a crabby attitude that she picked fights with animals much tougher than she was. Consequently, it cost a bloody fortune to patch her back together and inside became her only option.
When I rescued my cat ,he was fixed and front foot claws removed. He can not go out with the wild cats running around the house. When he smacks the beagles they look at him with "what was that for’.He has powderpuff paws.
I have a breezeway and an attached garage. Sometimes I let him out to enjoy a larger yet still safe territory.
Our rescued cats are indoor critters. Taz has managed to zip out a few times, but he goes a little ways into the yard, then he crouches down and yowls - I think the bigness of the space freaks him out. Ziva is a wuss. She’ll sit in the window if I’ve opened it but she’s never approached an open door. My daughter has a tortie who has access to a screened porch and who has wandered into the yard a few times, but she’ll race for the house if she’s at all nervous - just slightly less wussy than Ziva.
Our dog was literally taken in off the streets. We’ll let her out to do her business, obviously, and sometimes I’ll take her out when I’m working in the yard, but normally she displays no desire to go outside and explore. One day a month or so ago, she took off for no apparent reason and turned up the next day more than a mile away, having crossed a major state road. I have no idea why she felt he need to travel, but since then, she’s once again become my shadow.
Apart from the proximity to the state road, I like to keep my critters in because of fleas, ticks, and the general dirtiness of them rolling around in the gardens. There are also all kinds of wild things roaming the area, and I don’t want my animals bothering the native fauna or being attacked themselves. We’ve been talking about screening in the front porch, and if we do, the critters will have access when we’re home and weather permits leaving the front door open.
I’m in a minority, obviously, but I don’t think dogs or cats should be inside the house. Primarily because they make the house stink. And they destroy floors and furniture.
So many times I have gone over to someone’s house, and the second I walk through the front door I *know *they have a dog or cat due to the odor. I won’t let that happen to our house.
We also have “barn cats.” But we don’t have a barn (yet). So I built them a heated cat house. It’s insulated and contains two light bulbs.
I’ll take mild dog/cat odors (mild mind you - they don’t have to reek) over potpourri/febreze/sour baby smell any day of the week. And I prefer to have the companionship of animals over perfect furniture and floors.
But, that’s the basic difference between pet-people and non-pet people.
Voted indoors / outdoors but we do shut her in at night – she has a cat-flap that we set to in-only before she gets her dinner.
While she’s a complete sweetie with humans (and one of the most affectionate cats I’ve ever met), she has a habit of getting into it with the neighbouring cats and the results were neither good for her nor for our vet budget. 
Indoor only cats are a real rarity, in this area, in my experience. (Enough caveats?)
I would be really happy if our cat had ever taken to a harness, but since she refuses, she’s indoors full-time and happy about it. Not only do we have traffic, other cats, etc., in the area, we also have a coyote or two who would relish a tasty snack of kitteh.
You do know this is not inevitable, right? Properly housebroken dogs and cats will not eliminate inappropriately unless they are sick or suffering some emotional distress, which the owner should address. For cats, scoop the litterbox daily, change regularly and there will be no odor that is detectible by humans.
I’d love to let my cats outdoors, but they’re not just my cats, they’re also my sweeties, so…if one of them died or didn’t come back, I’d feel somehow a lot more awful about it, for my sweetie’s sake, than for mine, so…they’re indoor cats, with the limited exposure being when they scoot out the door and we chase them down, or the once or twice a year it rains and we let them out 'cause they ain’t going past the covered stairs anyway 
Preferentially, I’d let them roam in the yard, or maybe have a kitty door. But it’s not just an option right now.
I tried to correct too late, but let me please put the ’ back into ‘sweeties’; my cats are also my sweetie’s cats, not my sweeties.
Mew-mew kawaii is just not my thing. O.o
I live on a busy corner, there’s a lot of raccoons and possums around at night, several other cats in the neighborhood and lots of dogs (most of them leashed or in yards). My cat is an indoor-only model, she’s got tons of room to run around and I’m not worried about her getting into fights, hit by a car, eaten, etc.
If I lived in a quieter area with a big yard it might be different.
Because we all know that cats just don’t spend enough time sleeping as is
Well, I like 'em enough to get them declawed, neutered, euthanised and stuffed.
Now Kitty sits by the window, quite safely. Has done for years and years.
I wasn’t disagreeing, just back at’chaing at the poster before me. I would think anybody who keeps a dog housebound is insane; cats can be housebound (although that would definitely not work with a working cat). But getting on a high horse like the one Khaki climbed on deserves a whipping. Oh, horses shouldn’t be housebound, either.